Republican strategy about “political gamesmanship” rather than addressing pandemic

In a new column in the Portland Press Herald, Bill Nemitz lays out Maine Republicans’ “pure hypocrisy” on blocking a special session to complete unfinished business, despite their own calls to reconvene the Legislature. Republicans refused to even weigh in on a proposal to return by Senate President Troy Jackson and House Speaker Sara Gideon. 

And as legislative Republicans continue their transparent hypocrisy for political gain, lawmakers are refusing to gather to address pressing issues, and are instead engaging in “political gamesmanship” and playing “hide-and-seek.” 

 

Portland Press Herald: Bill Nemitz: Think it’s the pandemic keeping Maine lawmakers off the job? Try pure hypocrisy

By Bill Nemitz

July 26, 2020

Key Points:

 

  • For those of you who haven’t been closely following the drama – and by that I mean just about everyone – efforts to bring lawmakers back to Augusta for a much-needed special session are fast moving from frustrating to downright absurd.

 

  • Democrats in both the Senate and House want to do it, pronto, before this window of opportunity amid the COVID-19 pandemic slams shut.

 

  • Republicans in both the Senate and House, who back in May clamored for a return to Augusta, now don’t want to come anywhere near the place.

 

  • “It’s the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, fumed in a telephone interview.

 

  • Back when the Legislature temporarily closed up shop on March 17, no one knew how long the hiatus would last. But by May, as they watched Gov. Janet Mills exercise the emergency executive powers they’d bestowed upon her before leaving Augusta, Republican lawmakers had seen enough.

 

  • “We write to ask that you call the Legislature back into session,” they wrote in a May 2 letter to Jackson and House Speaker Sara Gideon, D-Freeport. Their goal: To rescind Mills’ emergency powers and then quickly go back home.

 

  • Didn’t happen. It’s too soon to reconvene, said the Democrats. Better to wait until Maine’s COVID-19 response blunts the spread of the disease and lawmakers can gather without putting themselves and those around them in peril.

 

  • Fast-forward to Friday, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Maine, with only 122 new cases of COVID-19 in the previous seven days, was trailed only by Vermont (with 52 new cases) among all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

 

  • Meaning it’s relatively safe to come out now, provided we do so cautiously and with common sense. And while COVID-19 explodes in other states – Florida reported 12,444 new cases on Friday alone – there’s every reason to believe Maine, rather than being out of the woods, is more in the eye of the hurricane when it comes to the future spread of the disease.

 

  • In short, if ever there was a time for the Legislature to return for a few days – not to the State House but to the roomier Augusta Civic Center – this is it. In addition to dealing with such weighty pandemic-related issues as the looming school year and this week’s end to enhanced unemployment benefits, scores of bills that were left hanging in March still await final action.

 

  • In a poll undertaken this month by Jackson and Gideon – under Maine’s Constitution, a majority of each party caucus must agree to a special session – all 109 Democratic lawmakers, along with six independents and one tribal representative, voted to come back. And the Republicans? One voted to return, two voted not to, and the other 67 did not respond to the poll.

 

  • “To be absolutely truthful, I don’t think the governor wants us back in session,” Dow mused. “The silence is deafening.” Or not. Lindsay Crete, the governor’s press secretary, responded in an email that Mills has no problem vetoing bills she considers contrary to “the best interests of Maine people.”

 

  • “The bottom line here is that Republicans could have returned, but they decided not to – despite their months of complaining. And rather than cast a vote, they’re now trying to shift responsibility for their inaction to the Governor. It seems like Senator Dow would like Governor Mills to do his job for him,” Crete said.

 

  • Over in the House, where Speaker Gideon is also locked in her race for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the standoff has grown even more transparent.

 

  • While Republican lawmakers essentially ignore Gideon’s poll about returning to work, Camp Collins continues to hammer her in a TV ad that says Gideon “did nothing” during the early days of Maine’s pandemic shutdown and has “delivered no help for Maine.”

 

  • How convenient. Collins slams her opponent for not coming back to work, while Collins’ own party prevents that from happening. Legislative committees, including Republican members, continue to meet and report out bills – as of Wednesday, 54 bills had cleared various committees. Yet even as they help move legislation that far, the Republicans refuse to gather en masse to see those measures to fruition. How does that make sense?

 

  • It doesn’t. Unless you consider that the Republicans’ strategy might have a lot more to do with political gamesmanship than with the COVID-19 pandemic.

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